Whether a public figure is straight or gay is viewed as irrelevant by most Americans but that doesn't stop the Left exploiting the issue for political advantage, argues Toby Harnden

On the face of it, Elena Kagan, the United States Solicitor General, and Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina would not seem to have much in common.

Kagan is a Democrat and former dean of Harvard who is currently in the frame to be chosen by President Barack Obama as a Supreme Court Justice. Graham happens to be a lawyer too but he is a Republican, a faithful sidekick of Senator John McCain and a Colonel in the US Air Force Reserve.

Last week, however, both were "outed" as being gay - actions that prompted outrage on the Left in the case of Kagan and, well, hilarity on the Left in the case of Graham.

Both individuals, it must be said, have stated that they are heterosexual - Kagan through others, and Graham himself, to Esquire magazine when he said he was not gay, just a loner. Both were outed by conservatives.

Except that with Kagan it wasn't quite as simple as that.

The Solicitor General was described by conservative blogger Ben Domenech as being boosted among liberals because she would be the "first openly gay justice" on America's highest court.

Far from being a smear, the statement appeared to be a genuine statement of what Domenech thought was a known fact - and something that has often been speculated about and remarked on by gay bloggers.

What drew attention to what he had buried in the middle of a relatively obscure blog post was an apoplectic reaction by the White House, which denounced Domenech and said his assumption was "inaccurate". Anita Dunn was wheeled out to accuse him of "applying old stereotypes to single women".

That's the Anita Dunn, by the way, who is the Democratic operative and former Obama aide advising David Cameron during the British election debates - a role that might leave her open to suspicions of being a Left-wing saboteur who has infiltrated the Tories.

But I digress. No one would have noticed Domenech's blog had the White House not drawn attention to it. And by doing so, it fuelled the notion that being a lesbian was somehow shameful.

Frankly, most Americans - and most on the American Right - could not care less. The influence of Christian conservatives is on the wane and few among their number view the personal sexual conduct of an individual - even if they consider it immoral - as a disqualifier for high public office.

But the White House intervention triggered a lot of tut-tutting from liberals about the conservative bigotry.

Next up was poor old Lindsey Graham. Prefacing his remarks with the statement that "I'm a tolerant person", William Gheen, head of Americans for Legal Immigration, demanded that the Senator "tell people about your alternative lifestyle and your homosexuality".

Graham's crime in Gheen's eyes is that he favours immigration reform - and is (bear with me here) "trying to sell out your own countrymen" for fear of his true sexuality being revealed.

Rather than being given the good ignoring that he deserved, the reprehensible Gheen instantly became a national figure, even reaching that modern American pinnacle of fame, being lampooned on Comedy Central by both Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart.

Colbert quipped that Graham should release a "straight sex" tape to prove he was heterosexual - just like various other senior Republicans whose marital infidelities had been revealed but had kept their jobs. "Sir, it will save your career because any kind of straight sex seems to be OK in the GOP."

It was funny, as Colbert invariably is. But it was also cruel and tinged with a certain retro quality. Graham didn't deserve it any more than Kagan did. It was hypocritical too - there was no comedy prompted by Kagan's outing (effectively by the White House, in the bizarre form of a denial).

But laughing about gay conservatives has long been a practice enjoyed by many ostensibly tolerant liberals. An individual's sexuality has no place in political discourse unless they choose to make it so - whatever their political persuasion.

Oddly enough, Obama has moved slowly on a reform that most Americans (polls suggest two-thirds or even three-quarters) would approve of - allowing gays to serve openly in the US military. He should act immediately, not least because it is a campaign promise.

Rather than faux outrage over "outing" gays, the President would do well both politically and morally to take a concrete step to help consign the practice of outing further into the realms of irrelevance.